Here’s this month’s list of the most interesting open submissions calls for writers I’ve found!
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Bog Matter
This new SF magazine will be published in print and digital twice a year. As well as SF it welcomes all sorts: ‘horror, fantasy, magical realism, slipstream, New Weird, utopian, dystopian, satirical, cross-genre, experimental, or exuding a general air of oddness.’
Word count: Up to 3500 words
Payment: 2 cents per word
Deadline: 1 September 2025 (for current issue)
Find out more

Tales of Horror
The tastes of the editors of this new horror zine lean towards classic writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Shirley Jackson and HP Lovecraft.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: 6 cents per word
Deadline: Ongoing
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Cosmic Chronicles Literary Prize
Here’s a big opportunity for SF writers! This prize is run by the SETI Instituteand welcomes fiction themed around ‘Intelligence and Consciousness’. There’s no entry fee, but only writers who haven’t yet published a novel are applicable.Word count: Up to 2000 words
Payment: First prize $1000
Deadline: 1 September 2025
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Merganser Magazine
This well-designed SF online zine appears to be accepting submissions on an ongoing basis, and pays pro rates.
Word count: Up to 2000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: Ongoing
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No Gods No Masters
Before submitting to this anthology from Sans Press, I’d advise reading the criteria carefully. While all genres appear to be welcome, the editors want stories that are ‘fresh and weird’ which are ‘motivated by the authentic pursuit of change’.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: $200
Deadline: 31 August 2025
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Uncharted
This online zine accepts SF, fantasy and horror, but also thriller and mystery stories, which is more of a rarity.
Word count: 1000–5000 words
Payment: $200
Deadline: Ongoing
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Fascination
Editor Rhonda Parrish is seeking stories featuring ‘nature-fueled magic, witches and dark fae. Creepy cottages, haunted homesteads and bespelled woods.’
Word count: Up to 7500 words
Payment: $50 CDN
Deadline: 3 September 2025
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Cliffhanger!
Another new journal inspired by classic fiction, this time pulp fiction writers such as H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Word count: 5000–6500 words
Payment: $10
Deadline: Ongoing
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Synthesized Sunsets
The upcoming issue of this online speculative fiction zine will have a solar theme. Its editor has included a list of influences, a classy collection of hard-SF and weird-fiction authors.
Word count: Up to 12,500 words
Payment: $50
Deadline: Open until full
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Humber SFF
Humber Speculative Fiction is a popular meetup in northeast UK, and now the group is putting together its first anthology. Stories should relate to the very zeitgeisty genre of solarpunk, should also be set in East Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and its coastal areas, and is open to writers from those areas.
Word count: Up to 8000 words
Payment: Nominal fee
Deadline: 1 September 2025
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Deadly Duos
This imprint from Dreadstone Books is currently accepting horror stories that feature funfairs, carnivals and circuses.
Word count: Up to 5000 words
Payment: 1 cent per word
Deadline: 30 September 2025
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Stolen
This anthology from Easton Tales will feature stories that involve theft in a literal or figurative sense – for example, kidnapping, identities, possession, lifeforce…
Word count: 2000–6000 words
Payment: $10 CDN
Deadline: Open until full
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Mande
If you’re a writer and bipolar, consider sending work this ‘journal of bipolar talent’
Word count: No limit
Payment: $50 per 1000 words (up to $250)
Deadline: Ongoing
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BloodClot!Zine
The editors of this new horror and speculative fiction online zine describe it as ‘powered by the work and voices of BIPOC horror writers, artists, and creators.’
Word count: Unspecified
Payment: None
Deadline: 20 August 2025
Find out more

Good luck if you submit a story to any of these venues! And remember, you can sign up for my email newsletter for monthly open submission calls direct to your inbox.

Image from Wikimedia Commons.